Wizard and Glass - The Dark Tower IV / Stephen King

In the beginning of Wizard and Glass, the fourth novel in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, Roland's Ka-Tet (A band of destiny) finds itself on Blain the suicidal mono train. Blain plans to derail itself with them onboard unless they ask it a riddle it cannot solve. Roland rises to the challenge and tries to find a tough riddle for Blain but Blain solves them all one by one.
Roland gives up as his riddles run out and it is clear that Blain knows them all, yet Eddie comes up with the solution: Blain's weakness is questions of stupid nature such as why did the Chicken cross the street?
Blain's logical mind cannot stand such riddles and his circuits snap. It cannot solve the questions and it comes to a screeching stop at the end of the rail.
The Ka-Tet finds itself in another version of Topeka but this one has been struck by a plague. No one is left alive. This is reminiscent of Stephen King's The Stand, one of his monumental early novels.
In Topeka they stumble upon a thinny, which is an area in which reality has grown thin, another symptom of the Tower's weakening. The thinny is hungry for life and can cast a spell at those who come near it and swallow them whole. The Ka-Tet inquires as to how Roland knows about the thinny and indeed regarding his entire past, and Roland tells them the story of his adolescence.
Roland passed his manhood trial at fourteen the younger ever in Gilead, his home barony. After his trial, his father sends him and two of his friends to the barony of Mejis. This is done for fear that Marten, the man in black who has become Roland's mother's lover will kill him.
The Barony of Mejis is far barony in which no trouble is expected to befall Roland and his friends, Cuthbert and Alain. But trouble is there and in abundance, for Mejis has a lot of oil, and John Farson, Gilead's nemesis has discovered how to use it to fuel the ancient weapons of the Old People (Tanks of sorts). He had also sent for safe keeping one of the wizard's glasses: orbs of immense magical power. Mejis also has a thinny.
When Roland comes into Mejis he runs into Susan Delgado, a beautiful girl. The two fall intensely in love, yet she has been promised to be the mayor of Mejis's second wife.
The two meet continually in secret and Roland loves for the first and last time.
In Mejis agents of Farson who are in charge of the Wizard's Glass and the oil plot seize Roland and his friends and jail them. They intend to burn them alive in an ancient festival which is held in Mejis as they blame them as traitors who are working for Farson. Yet Susan aided by a retarded boy named Sheemie help them to escape and they set a trap for Farson's men, killing many and stealing the Wizard's Glass and drawing many more into the thinny which engulfs them. They also set fire to the oil field in Mejis, thus securing that Farson will not be able to tap into it again.
But Susan is killed. The town people catch her and she is burned alive. What is most troubling is that Roland sees his destiny within the Glass and knows that he must desert Susan for the Tower.
He heads back to Gilead with his friends.
When the story finishes, Roland and his Ka-Tet come upon a glass palace which is reminiscent of the wizard of Oz's. In it they come upon the man in black, Walter (also Marten) and nearly kill him. There another one of Roland's crimes is revealed: when he returned from Mejis, he was induced by magic to shoot his own mother. He is a matricide. The lengths to which Roland's quest has taken him, the deaths of his loved ones, is the series' underlying tragedy.

In my view this is the finest novel of the dark tower among the seven. It is beautifully written, suspenseful and touching. A must read.

The Dark Tower III - The Waste Lands / Stephen King

Abstract:
The third installment in The Dark Tower series, Stephen King's life long literary quest, again touches upon Roland's world and our own. As Roland, Eddie and Susannah travel on, they stumble upon Shardik. Shardik is an ancient machine in the form of a gigantic bear. But as with most of the things in Roland's world, it is winding down, or to put it bluntly, crazy as hell. Shardik attempts to kill Eddie who barely escapes to a tree top. But Shardik shakes the tree and it would soon topple. Yet Eddie's shouts bring back his companions, and Susannah manages to shoot the sensory device controlling Shardik and thus causing its death. Roland then tells his friends that Shardik is but one of twelve guardians who stand at the portals of the six beams which converge at the Dark Tower.
The twelve portals stand in the twelve edges of the world (or worlds) and the Dark Tower is in the middle. So they must follow the path of the Beam which Shardik guarded and it will lead them to the Dark Tower, distance unknown.
Meanwhile, in New York, Jake Chambers fears he is losing his mind. It seems that he is torn between two realities, New York and the world of Roland whom he seems to remember having left him to fall to his death in a chasm in the mountains. Yet Jake feels that he loves the gunslinger deeply. He also becomes obsessed with doors and feels that he must find the door to Roland's world soon or go insane. He wanders New York and comes upon a deserted lot in Manhattan. In it he sees the most beautiful rose he has ever encountered.
The rose is like a million suns and from it emanates good being and happiness and strength. Yet Jake senses that the rose is in grave danger and that Roland must become aware of it. Next to the rose he finds a key and takes it with him.
Back in Roland's world, Eddie starts carving a branch that he has found. He does not know why, but feels that he must shape a key out of it. Some days later, Roland's group reaches a demon circle. It is here that they must conjure the door through which they may draw Jake. Since the demon is a male, and all demons are highly sexual creatures, Susannah suffers its rough attention while Eddie portrays a door in the middle of the circle and fits the key in. In New York, Jake overcomes great dangers and fits his key at his end of the door. He it taken to Roland and the two embrace in love.
The four travel across the path of the Beam towards Lud, and ancient city. In it they know that there is a train that can take them over the Waste Lands and closer to the Dark Tower. In their way they stumble upon a billy-bumbler, a dog like creature, but highly intelligent. The billy-bumblers are reputed to bear the gift of speech, and this one is extremely proficient. The boy Jake names him Oy and it joins their group.
Lud bears a striking resemblance to New York, another proof that Roland's world and our own are linked. Lud is in turmoil for two groups fight in its streets and alleys without cease. The city's ancient technology is long neglected. One of the groups kidnaps Jake and Roland goes after him, assisted by Oy and its sense of smell, while Eddie and Susannah seek out the train station. Both Roland and the couple must fight their way against the city's bloodthirsty inhabitants.
The train, whose name is Blaine, is in fact a part of the powerful computer that had once governed Lud. Yet it, as other machines, has gained awareness and lost its mind. Blaine is a riddle addict, and through the promise of more riddles, the group manages to persuade it to carry them to the end of its line.
How long will it take is hard to tell for distances, directions and even time itself have gone hazy as the Tower weakens. They set out at full speed and pass over the Waste Lands. But once they get going, Blaine informs them that he intends to derail at the end of the line, killing himself and them to boot. Roland makes a deal with it that should they present it with a riddle it cannot solve, it will let them live. So ends, the third volume of the Dark Tower.

Review:
An excellent book, exciting and fast paced. A must for all Stephen King and fantasy lovers

The Dark Tower II - The Drawing of the Three / Stephen King

The second volume of Stephen King's grand series begins when Roland of Gilead, the lest gunslinger, wakes on the shore of the western sea to discover that he is being attacked by a lobster like creature, only much bigger, quicker, and hungrier. Even Roland's lightning quick reflexes are not enough to come out of this battle unscathed. Roland loses two fingers of his right hand to the lobstrosity before killing it, and from now on he is a one handed fighter.
Roland makes his way along the shore of the western sea, now feverish with the lobstrosity's poison. He is looking for doors through which he must draw three companions for his quest. This he had been told by the man in black when he had at last caught up with him in the first volume.
The first door is marked The Prisoner, and through it Roland must draw Eddie Dean, a young man who is addicted to heroin which is his prison. But before Roland can draw Eddie, he must help him get out of the mess he is in, for Eddie is also a drug courier for the mob. Roland goes through the door to New York of 1987 to help Eddie out of his predicament and to draw him forth. Now he must contend with his new companion's addiction. There is no heroin in Roland's world.
Together they come upon a second door marked The Lady of Shadows. Through it, Roland must draw Odetta Holmes, a young black woman who has lost both her legs when she was pushed by an unknown man in front of a subway train. Yet Odetta is not one woman, but two, for she is torn between two identities, the soft, kind and righteous Odetta, and the filthy talking, ruthless and crafty Detta. As she comes through, Roland and Eddie must be on their guard for there is no knowing when Detta might gain control of Odetta's body. To make things worse, Eddie finds himself falling in love with Odetta.
Roland is now so sick that the third door must serve as a conduit through which he will find medicine. The third door is marked the pusher. Roland goes through alone leaving Eddie to guard Detta. In New York Roland encounters the Pusher, Jack Mort, who years earlier pushed Odetta in front of the train. Roland uses his body to find ammunition for his guns and much needed antibiotics for himself. He then disposes of the Pusher in front of the same train which took Odetta's legs. He goes back through the door to find that Eddie has been left tied on the beach with lobstrosities approaching. Roland manages to save him and through his killing of Jack Mort he forces and inner transformation in Odetta, resulting with a third woman, Susannah who is a combination of Detta's craft and ability, and Odetta's kindness. Now healthy, Roland and his new companions continue their quest for the Dark Tower.

The Dark Tower - The Gunsliner / Stephen King

In this novel, the first of seven in Stephen King's magnum opus, The Dark Tower which was inspired by Robert Browning's 19th century poem, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, King introduces the reader to Roland of Gilead, a gunslinger.
A gunslinger is a sort of western cowboy, packing guns and extremely deadly. Roland is on a quest for the Dark Tower, a place of immense mystery and power. The book describes Roland's pursuit of the man in black across desert. Roland's world is a complex place, even though it is foreign to our own, certain things seem to exist in both worlds: The Beatles' Hey Jude is sung in a saloon Roland passes on his way; several machines or remnants of such as should not exist in any Western appear every now and again.
The man in black is a wizard of sorts and holds information Roland must have if he is to fulfill his quest and reach the Dark Tower. The desert on which Roland makes his pursuit is barren and nearly devoid of life. Yet Roland strives on overcoming traps which the man in black lays for him, gaining on the man in black as the days pass and his rations and water diminish. After a time he comes upon a way station that once served a long deserted coach route. In the way station Roland encounters Jake, a boy of New York who has been conjured there involuntarily. Roland takes Jake along with him and they continue the pursuit of the man in black.
Their travels lead them to a deserted rail track that runs into a mountain. In the darkness of the mountains they encounter and fight mutant humanoids, descendants of the victims of an ancient and forgotten cataclysmic war. Upon leaving the mountains they reach a chasm bridged by a rickety ropeway. During the crossing the man in black appears at the other edge. At that point Jake stumbles and holds onto the bridge for dear life. The man in black presents Roland with a choice: forsake Jake and catch him or allow him to flee. Roland has to make the choice that would best serve his quest and not his conscience.
The end of the book, Roland and the man in black sit down to palaver and Roland receives the information he must have to continue his quest.